Book review: The story of husband-and-wife missionaries in Fort Yukon is told in ‘Hospital & Haven’

“Hospital & Haven: The Life and Work of Grafton and Clara Burke in Northern Alaska”

By Mary F. Ehrlander with Hild M. Peters; University of Nebraska Press, 2023; 360 pages; $34.95.

In 1885, the Presbyterian cleric Sheldon Jackson, who came to Alaska with the intent of evangelizing, recognized the enormous size of the recently purchased territory and saw the futility of trying to usher his church to its every corner. Wishing to bring Christian teachings to the Native population, he devised a plan to divide the lands and peoples into regions, and to cede each one to a different Christian denomination for mission work that would include not only religious teachings, but health care and education as well. In the absence of federal interest, it was the only available means of providing the latter.

Under Jackson’s plan, the vast Interior was given over to the Episcopal Church, and this led to the arrival of Archdeacon Hudson Stuck, a titanic figure in Alaska’s history. In 1904 he reached the territory, and within little time was drawing missionaries northward in his wake. Among those who heard the call was Grafton “Hap” Burke, a newly minted physician whose education Stuck had overseen since his childhood.

Burke reached Alaska in 1908, where he was assigned by Stuck to oversee the mission in the Han Gwich’in village of Fort Yukon. Along his pathway to the tiny town, Burke passed through Allakaket, where he met Clara May Heintz, a young and adventurous woman who had been there for a year, intending to leave after a short stint of mission work herself.

Burke and Heintz, in what would almost seem to be a foreordained partnering, fell in love and were married in 1910. For the next 28 years, the couple ran St. Stephen’s Mission, both experiencing and contributing to the rapid changes that swept over Alaska Native communities as Americans flowed into their ancestral lands.

The story of how the Burkes interacted with a village that welcomed them in and was greatly served by them is recounted in “Hospital & Haven,” a deeply researched history by Mary Ehrlander and Hild Peters that explores both the development and impacts of missionary work in early 20th century Alaska.

Among the denominations that sought to bring Christianity to Alaska Natives, the Episcopal Church was in some ways unique. This owed heavily to Stuck, who greatly admired Native cultures and, aside from a wish to convert them, sought to protect them from the diseases, alcohol and sexual appetites brought by white miners, trappers and settlers.

The Burkes followed Stuck’s example as they built the mission in Fort Yukon. Religious outreach was certainly a priority, we learn, and services were held in both English and Gwich’in. But more important to both, service to the community as an example of Christian faith was what took precedence. No one in need, Native or white, would be turned away. Ehrlander and Peters follow the Burkes through their decades in Alaska as they rendered assistance in numerous ways.

Upon arrival, the Burkes encountered a village where the cultural unity was strong, but health and sanitation were poorly wanting. The two wasted no time getting to work. Among the responsibilities they assumed was the safe keeping of children. Education to prepare them for the impending intervention of the outside world was paramount, and Clara was soon teaching school. More demandingly, there were children in need of homes. Among them were orphans, mixed-blood offspring whose white fathers had abandoned them, and those whose parents lacked the resources to provide proper care. The Burkes took dozens of them into the mission house, where sometimes in excess of 25 would live temporarily or for the long term. Clara, according to the authors citing letters and records from the time, kept watch over them all even as she tirelessly aided Hap in his duties.

Much of Hap’s work centered on medical aid. With the assistance of the indefatigable Stuck, and with financing from the national church mission fund, he built and opened St. Stephen’s Hospital (later renamed Hudson Stuck Memorial Hospital after the archdeacon’s death in 1920), the only hospital that accepted Native patients along an 800-mile stretch of the Yukon River.

There he dealt with deadly epidemics that stormed through Native settlements across Alaska. Influenza, measles and smallpox were rampant at times, and tuberculosis rates were sky high. All were leading causes of death. Hunger owing to increased pressure on food supplies by white settlers was also prevalent. Liquor amplified the problems. In some places, mortality rates reached 50%. By 1911, Native deaths rates in the Yukon drainage region outpaced birth rates. All of this led to intergenerational trauma that wasn’t recognized until decades later. “To mitigate these threats to Alaska Native lives and well-being,” the authors write, “Episcopal missionaries urged maintenance of traditional lifeways, with health-related adaptations and avoidance of alcohol and corruptive outside influences.”

Hap also tended to victims of gunshot wounds, frostbite and other injuries, and those stricken by chronic diseases, sanitation-borne illnesses and bacterial infections. He received only minimal compensation from the church for his efforts. And under mission rules, Clara, as his wife, was paid nothing. The mission itself was perpetually underfunded, and more than once Hap reached into his own pocket to cover expenses. They worked fully out of devotion and nothing else.

The Burkes became adept in Native lifeways themselves and integrated so deeply into the community that they became beloved. But the authors stress that by their very presence, they caused change. Although unintentional, the Western customs they brought with them inevitably left the Gwich’in people wondering if their own culture was inferior. Disease and sanitation problems were worsened by gathering a people who had traditionally moved about the land into one permanent settlement. And education drew children away from their heritage.

On balance, however, the Burkes were incalculably beneficial for Fort Yukon, where they are still remembered well. As the authors note in their closing line of this fascinating study on the role of missions in post-Gold Rush Alaska, “Hap and Clara cast their lot among the Gwich’in people and conducted real mission work — saving lives.”

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